Local Teen Comes Face-to-Face with Rare Pygmy Sperm Whale Along Gaviota Coast

GAVIOTA, Calif. (KEYT) – Axel Wright thought he was spending the day fishing off the Gaviota coast - but then he spotted something unusual in the water.

It was a pygmy sperm whale. Wright and his friends found the animal struggling near the shore. They pushed it back out, but it kept returning to the beach. So Wright called the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute.

For nearly 2 hours, Axel stayed in the water, hoping this little whale could make it. Sadly, the whale did not survive.

A necropsy was done on Monday. The cause of death was linked to the consumption of plastics, fishing debris, and trash, including a Cheetos bag.

"I've never seen anything like it before. It was like it had a really round head, like its eyes were really low," described Wright. "What we learned after is that its stomach was like 90% full of plastic, which is just like so heartbreaking that like these new animals are coming up here, can't find food or they're eating plastic. So yeah, it's really a bummer."

For Wright, the rare encounter became a difficult look at what marine animals can face in the ocean.

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